


Echoes

by cgf_kat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Shiro and keith are adopted brothers, because this is a mermaid AU, that I wrote for the Voltron mer zine Seaborne, they're also mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 11:01:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18387104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cgf_kat/pseuds/cgf_kat
Summary: "I told you coming out here was a bad idea." The bracelet of smooth black stones nestled against the recorder’s strap pulses with the voice.Keith snorts. “I didn’t plan on this part, you know!” He swims under a buckling strut before it can break. “Any bright ideas, Shiro?”"Stick with the not-dying plan."“Gee thanks.”***Voltron mermaid AU written for the Voltron Mer zine Seaborne.A year after Shiro's disappearance, Keith is struggling to adjust and stay connected with his friends, and determined to find Shiro.





	Echoes

_Keith...what are you doing?_

The voice presses into his mind with its’ usual warmth, but he can feel its’ annoyance, too.

“Mostly trying not to die at this point?”

Metal is screaming around him as it bends and tears, sending fresh waves through the water to join the aftershocks of the earthquake. They batter him as he twists through the submerged structure, trying to find a way out even as it comes down around him. He tries to keep the lense of the small recorder strapped to his wrist aimed out as he goes.

 _I told you coming out here was a bad idea._ The bracelet of smooth black stones nestled against the recorder’s strap pulses with the voice.

Keith snorts. “I didn’t plan on this part, you know!” He swims under a buckling strut before it can break. “Any bright ideas, Shiro?”

_Stick with the not-dying plan._

“Gee thanks.”

The entire structure has tilted so much the windows are pressed into the opposite wall of the trench. Doorways and passageways are bent out of shape, preventing him from finding a clear path up to the other side. He doesn’t dare venture deeper into the structure now only to be dragged down into the trench when the whole thing sinks.

But at long last, a tear in the metal not pressed into the cliff face. The angle is enough to let him out, barely. Keith grimaces as the sharp edges scrape the red scales of his tail as he wriggles free. Now if he can swim out from under the falling structure before it takes him down too..

Almost. So close. He darts down for a better view of which way to go, then streaks for the closest lighter water. The closest way out from under this monstrosity.

He’s almost there when a piece of debris hits him—sends him spinning, pain searing through his shoulder.

_Keith!_

No. He isn’t dying here. Somehow he gets his bearings enough to right himself and put on a burst of speed—to get back to open water. His vision is blurry, his shoulder aches, but he gets there.

_Keith, the tower. Or somewhere else safe. You can’t stay here. Go. Go now._

He’s still floating over the trench. If he passes out he’ll fall anyway. Keith swallows and swims back to what’s left of the complex the falling section was once attached to—back over a much closer ocean floor. In the center of the sprawling abandoned network of buildings, a tower reaches up into the water.

He and Shiro used to hide in that tower to watch the city from a distance. To get away from the bustle and the lights and the noise.

He reaches out for the edge of the doorway as he gets close, pulling himself into the round room at the top and collapsing to the metal floor. He flips a switch to turn off the recorder.

 _Keith? Keith, are you all right?_ The bracelet pulses again, and Keith squeezes his eyes shut.

_You have to stop doing things like this by yourself. It’s too dangerous._

“I’m not by myself…”

A pause in which he can almost feel the disapproval. _Keith...I’m just a simulation. You know that. You know I’m not him._

“Shiro is still out there somewhere. I know he is,” Keith insists. “I’ll find him...all of them.” It’s not like he hasn’t tried. Every time he sets out his mother or her guards find him and drag him back. He knows she just wants him safe, but...

_I want that to be true for you. But you can’t keep isolating yourself like this._

Keith ignores the voice and pulls himself up to look out toward the city. The lights are still flickering from the quake, and he can almost see the commotion caused by the disturbance from here.

The city is dying. Shiro disappeared a year ago, with an entire scouting party. The quakes here are getting worse, and the entire tribe will have to move soon. The scouting party was looking for somewhere for them to go. They knew they would be gone for months, but they had communications devices. They checked in regularly.

Until they didn’t.

The faint sound of worried voices makes Keith focus on a point between the city and the abandoned complex—calls that resolve into his name as three figures draw closer. One blue tail, one green, one yellow.

Oh.

“Keith!”

“Keith, where are you!”

“Keith, are you okay?”

He shakes his head and swims out to meet them. “I’m right here, you guys.”

“There he is! Oh man,” Hunk says. “Dude, we thought you were in that section that went down.”

Keith winces when Hunk darts over to hug him. “Actually, I was. Ow.”

Pidge swims around behind him, at the shoulder he must be favoring, then, if she noticed so quickly. “Quiznak, Keith, what’d you do? Your whole shoulder is turning purple.”

“Something hit me...I-I don’t know. I’m fine, Pidge.”

Lance is already crossing his arms. “You’re _not_ fine. You could have _died_! What were you thinking coming out here by yourself!”

“I was _thinking_ that no one comes out here anymore. Everyone is too afraid to. Yes, it’s dangerous, but the Council needs to _see_ that, and stop ignoring it.”

“We’re with you on that one, Keith; we’re just not with you on the being-stupid,” Pidge mutters. “Hunk, dermal rejuvenator?”

“Yeah, gotcha.” Hunk digs in the bag across his shoulder for a moment and floats a small device her direction.

She snatches it from the current he creates with his tail to push it to her. “Thanks.”

“Really, Pidge,” Keith says. “You don’t have to—”

“Shut up, I’m working.”

He can almost hear the smirk in her voice as she activates the rejuvenator and passes the warm beam over his sore flesh. He can’t see it, but he knows the bruises are receding as the dull pain fades.

“You could have asked us to come with you,” Lance says.

“Why?” Keith asks. “So you could lecture me again? Like you’re doing now?”

“Being concerned isn’t lecturing,” Hunk protests.

Keith’s fingers curl around the stone bracelet. “That’s not all I’m talking about, and you know it.”

Lance scowls. “What? Are we wrong for trying to get you to talk to us more than you talk to some pebbles?”

_They’re not wrong._

“Shut up!”

They’re all blinking at him. Maybe he was talking more to the voice in his head than to them, but the effect is the same. Fine. Keith shakes off Pidge’s hands and darts away. When he rounds on them they’re still staring.

“Keith...” Pidge says. “He just means—”

“It doesn’t matter! If you’re not going to help, leave me alone!”

_Keith..._

He ignores the voices as he swims back for the city. There are still crowds in the streets when he gets there; his mother will be with their people, as she should be. She’s probably the one who sent the others after him in the first place.

It means Keith has no one to stop him from going straight home. He brushes angrily through the reeds hanging in the open metal doorway of his room and then there is nowhere else to go.

Shiro’s voice is still there, the stones warm. _What now?_

***

**_One Year Ago_ **

“Sometimes I wish I was the adopted one. How am I ever supposed to lead these people, Shiro? I mean...I know it’s a long way off...but you would do it so much better.”

Shiro chuckles as they watch the city from their tower - the spires and streets and lights and structures left centuries ago by land-dwellers before seismic activity put most of this continent under water. Claimed generations ago by their tribe.

“Don’t say that. Just because you probably wouldn’t be any good at it right now doesn’t mean you won’t be someday.”

“Gee thanks; note my sarcasm,” Keith shoots back.

“You’ve still got some growing up to do,” Shiro says. “But you’ll be fine. I believe in you.”

“You’ll still be there, right?”

Shiro smiles. “Of course.”

“Because...I don’t think I could do it without you.”

“Don’t say that, either.”

“Why not?”

Shiro looks out through the water for a moment before he answers. When he turns back to Keith, he’s tugging the bracelet of black stones he’s always worn from his wrist. “Here...I want you to hold onto this while we’re gone.”

Keith blinks. “What? But I thought this was all you had left of your tribe…”

“It is. But it’s also made of Essence Stone.”

“I thought that stuff was just stories?”

“No. It’s rare, but there were deposits near my old village. I was too young to know for sure, but it’s probably why we were attacked.” He winces the way he always does when he talks about the tribe he came from, and rubs at the scar across his nose. “Anyway...I’ve been wearing it most of my life. It’s learned me by now. It’ll keep you company.”

Keith still hesitates, but he takes the bracelet. “Thanks. Just...come back, okay?”

***

**_Now_ **

_What now?_

Keith plugs his small recorder into the computer console in the wall.

“I look for something to show the council. They have to let us send another team out...to find Shiro and the others, to find a place to go...we can’t just give up! Shiro never would have wanted that.”

_I don’t think he would have wanted you shutting your friends out, either._

His fingers twitch as he swipes through the footage. “Can we please not do this now…?”

_I think we have to, Keith._

He pounds a fist into the wall beside the console. “Why?”

_Because THIS isn’t what Shiro would have wanted, either. Do everything you can to protect the city and our people, yes, but don’t stop living the rest of your life._

“None of us will _be_ alive if we don’t get out of this city eventually. And the best way to do that is to find Shiro.”

_Rationalize what you’re doing any way you want, Keith, but you know you’re not doing it the way he would have wanted. He wouldn’t have wanted you doing it all alone._

“Stop talking like you’re—like he’s dead!”

A long pause this time, before the stones pulse again. _That’s the problem, Keith. You’ve become too reliant on me. I’m supposed to be a comfort...a reminder...a way to keep someone’s memory alive. I’m not supposed to be a crutch._

Keith swallows convulsively. “You’re...that’s not what I’m doing.”

_I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s my own fault, too. I’m...because I act like he would, I care about you like he would. I don’t like to see you suffering. I tried...too hard, maybe. Did too much. Didn’t pull back as much as I should have, when I should have._

Keith suddenly feels cold, staring down at his wrist. “What are you saying…?”

_I’m saying...I think I should go. I’m not helping you anymore. I’m holding you back._

“What? No. No no no no, Shiro, it’s fine. I’m fine. I’ll -I’ll...something. I’ll talk to them. Don’t—”

_I’m sorry, Keith. I hope Shiro really is still out there. You can do this._

“No, wait!” But the bracelet goes dark, the stones cold against his skin. “Shiro! Shiro, please!”

No answer, no matter how much he calls. Until everything is spinning and his chest is heaving with sobs, and when did he double over like this?

It’s not the voice in his head he’s thinking about. Missing. All he can think about is his brother. The real one. The one who’s smile he can still see in his memory. Maybe his echo was right, but that doesn’t make it easier to do anything else but hurt.

“...Keith? Keith!” Hands on his arms, a shoulder under his bowed forehead and a voice near his ear. Lance? “Keith...hey...it’s okay…”

There’s no use in explaining, and he can’t bring himself to push him away. Not now. His friend’s arms wrap around him, not just steadying him but holding onto him, and he doesn’t stop that, either. He feels...drained.

When he does extract himself he’s stammering. “S-Sorry, I...I’m sorry.”

Lance gives him some space, and shrugs. “It’s okay...what happened?”

Keith glances down at the silent black stones. “He...he shut himself down.”

“Oh…” Lance blinks. “I’m sorry. We’ve been worried about you but that isn’t what we wanted, I—”

“It’s not your fault.” He makes a face. “Have I been an idiot?”

“Yes.”

Keith raises an eyebrow.

Lance shrugs. “I mean...yeah. You have. But maybe we could have done a better job, too. I’m sorry.”

They both go silent. Keith doesn’t know where to look, or what to say next. He doesn’t know where to go from here. He doesn’t know how to fix...any of this.

He isn’t sure how long he’s been staring at the floor when Lance grabs his arm. “Follow me.”

“What…?”

Lance all but drags him, but  he doesn’t know what else to do, so he doesn’t protest. Somehow he isn’t surprised to end up in Pidge’s lab. Pidge and Hunk are already there, Pidge at her computer and Hunk tinkering with some sort of small device hooked into her console.

“You got him?” Pidge asks, without looking up.

“Yep,” Lance answers. “You guys ready?”

“Ready for what?” Keith asks.

Hunk grins up at him. “You’ll see.”

Lance points to the now dormant string of stones around Keith’s wrist. “Do you mind if we borrow that for a minute?”

“I...guess?” He tentatively hands it to Lance, who brings it to Hunk, who sets it inside the chamber of the device.

“Don’t worry, it’s not gonna hurt it,” Hunk says. “Go for it, Pidge.”

Pidge presses a button with a flourish, and the device activates. On her screen, a display pops up that looks like some kind of running search until it solidifies into a map of the surrounding area. With a bright flashing arrow near one corner, pointing off the grid.

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance are cheering, saying something worked.

“What do you mean?”

“We managed to track down some samples of Essence Stone to test,” Pidge said excitedly. “Hunk and I figured out a way to use any sample of the stone to track whatever life force it’s most connected to.”

Lance grins. “And that bracelet is connected to Shiro.”

Keith’s stomach drops. “You guys did all this…?”

“It’s not a perfect science,” Hunk explains. “And, I mean, you know, obviously it looks like he’s not close enough for it to give us anything more than a general direction, but…”

“It’s something,” Keith says quietly.

Pidge is nodding. “Now you can find him. With something more concrete to offer, the council _has_ to let you go.”

Lance rests a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “And we’re coming with you.”


End file.
